The Eternal Kingdom
by TheChronicler137
Summary: They had never so much as kissed, but he never got over her. Never moved on. Never. A quick, short resolution to the tale of Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke, King and Queen of the Kingdom of Terabithia. Leslie-is-dead fluff and theology (I have some really weird interests).


Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

**A/N So it's been a few years since I read the book, but seeing the movie in an airport lounge reminded me of it. Just watched the whole thing, so this will probably be closer to the movie than the book (you can thank my atrociously bad memory for that). But I put it here anyway; the movie archive seemed pretty dead.**

**So, an idea that came to me while going to school one day. Enjoy.**

"_Your friend Leslie's dead._"

"_People kept trying to help me to forget. But I didn't want to forget._"

"_I don't know everything about God, but I do know He's not gonna send that little girl to Hell._"

"_She's in your hands now._"

The same echoes that Jesse Aarons had awoken to every day faded as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, awoken by the sound of someone knocking on his front door.

Every day, since that day he lost Leslie.

"Hello? Mr. Aarons?" came a boy's voice from the front door, and the rap of knuckles.

The septuagenarian proceeded, slowly but serenely, out of his bedroom and down the stairs. The walls of the house that he had grown up in were now extensively decorated with paintings and other artwork of his own design, his parents had passed on, all his siblings had left to chase their dreams, and the house had to be occasionally repaired, refurbished and reinforced, but aside from that, surprisingly little had changed in sixty years.

_They say that war changes everything. But this time, it's because of the war that so many things stayed the same. _(A/N Yay! Cryptic references! I may or may not explain what this is supposed to mean in a sequel to my main fic-in-progress from another fandom. But let's not digress)

But he brushed these distracting ruminations aside, as answered the door.

A boy and a girl, both of whom were more or less the same age as he and Leslie were when she died, stood in front of his door.

_Ah. Of course._

Jess had got by reasonably well on the income he made from selling his artwork, and from teaching the subject at school. From the former, he accrued a small degree of international fame. But amongst the students of Lark Creek Elementary, his name was furthermore known to the students as being that of the unbeaten record holder for the annual Leslie Burke Race.

To commemorate the tragedy of Leslie's death, the teachers saw fit to create an annual race bearing her name. Though Jess knew this was hardly Leslie's most defining characteristic, he kept silent, lest he reveal the secret of Terabithia. Instead, he took part in the first race, ran with all his might, set a record, and never raced again. And to this day, that timing had never been broken. Generation after generation of students would come to him to ask how he did it. He guessed that these two must be friends who had come to him for the same.

"Hello," he smiled warmly at them, opening the door all the way.

"Come in," he invited them, and headed into the kitchen.

"I was just about to make breakfast."

The two looked around, marvelling at Jesse's work.

"So, uh, Mr. Aarons…" the boy started.

"Yes," Jesse said, as he lit the stove, "how can I help you two?"

"Well," the girl said, "I'm Kate, and this is my friend Humphrey (A/N Dat reference). So we heard about your record in the Leslie Burke Race, and…"

"And you were wondering how I did it?" he asked, with his back to them.

"Yes," Kate nodded.

He turned to the two.

"Well, there are just some situations which make you do more than you ever thought you even could."

He turned back to his cooking.

"That race was one of them."

A photograph hanging below a crucifix caught Humphrey's eye.

"Was it because of her?" he pointed at the photo of Leslie.

Jess turned, even though he already knew which photo the boy was talking about.

"Yes," he said, as a bittersweet smile came to his lips.

"Do you know what her name is?" he asked them.

Silence.

"Leslie Burke."

The pair blinked simultaneously.

"What?"

"Yes, Leslie Burke, the girl the races were named after. She was my closest friend, but I realised too late that she was so much more than that. She realised it too, but also too late."

Kate and Humphrey bowed their heads, as Jess continued making his pancakes in silence.

"I would never see any girl or woman the same way I saw her. I didn't want to, anyway."

A faraway look descended upon his features.

"I'll wait every day of my life for her."

"I…I'm sorry," Kate said, after a long, solemn, silent while.

Jesse sighed.

"Well," he continued, "when they decided that she should be remembered with a race, I was mad. She was the fastest runner in fifth grade, but that wasn't what made her so special. But I couldn't tell them what it was, so I just took all my anger, all my love for her, and poured it all out. And I never raced again."

"So," Kate said, as he put the pancakes on a plate and brought it to the dining table, "you did it with…love?"

"I guess," he nodded, as he placed three more empty plates on the table.

"Go ahead, eat up," he said, as he speared two pancakes with his fork and deposited them on his plate.

* * *

It was late afternoon before Jesse finally decided to start his run.

Soon after the war, Jesse had erected a small shrine for Leslie on the bank of the small stream that separated them from Terabithia. The land had never lost its enchantment for its King, and neither did it for its two Princesses May Belle and Joyce Ann, though they didn't visit it nearly as often as their King, given the proximity. At first, he'd run there several times a day, then kneel by it and pray, hours at a time.

But slowly, he was finding it increasingly hard to run. He found himself being tired in general, slowing down, and so on. Today he felt particularly lethargic, but he finally managed to shrug it off, and run from his house to the bridge to Terabithia, as he and Leslie had so frequently done before.

As he crossed it, he slowed down, panting heavily.

He turned to the simple construction, topped with a stone cross, which he had put together brick by brick. Of course, the entire realm served as a memorial for the imaginative young girl, but the shrine served as the focal point of it all.

_Leslie Burke_, read the engraving he had made with his own hand.

_Queen of Terabithia. Born AD 1967 – Died AD 1977._

_ "Nothing Crushes Us."_

For a moment, he could almost see her pretty face before his very eyes, her lips moving.

"_Nothing crushes us._" her voice seemed to echo in his ears, ghostly.

He fell to his knees, the surge of emotion overpowering him.

And then, as tears rolled down his face, he crossed himself, and his lips began murmuring that ancient prayer that he had so often uttered in front of this shrine:

"Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen."

"May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen."

He crossed himself again, and slowly got to his feet, still tearing.

"I love you, Leslie," he whispered, tenderly and tearfully, for the thousandth time, the words he had never got the chance to say to her.

He took a few moments to compose himself before running home.

As he showered, he suddenly realised just how _tired_ he was. Maybe he would skip dinner altogether, and just go to straight to sleep...

* * *

"Ungh!"

"KATE!"

Humphrey ran over to his friend's side, as the gang of tormentors they had to deal with on a daily basis fled the scene.

"Kate, are you alright?" Humphrey asked in concern, helping her to her feet.

"Yeah, I—ow!" she winced.

"I should be fine, but I think they broke something."

The colour faded from Humphrey's face somewhat.

"So you won't run?"

"Not this time, Humphrey," she said.

Humphrey gulped.

"O-OK…"

And suddenly, she remembered Jesse's advice.

"Come on," she started, "you'll be running against those guys. Go knock 'em dead, Humphrey. Win this thing…"

She hesitated somewhat.

"…win it for me," she kissed him.

His eyes widened in surprise, and he began to smile in a somewhat dopey fashion.

"A-Alright…"

* * *

"Mr. Aarons!" Kate cried ecstatically, all but hammering on his door.

"Mr. Aarons! Mr. Aarons! He did it! Humphrey finally did it!"

There was no response.

Humphrey tested the door handle.

It wasn't locked.

They looked at each other.

Kate stepped into the house, but Humphrey pulled her back.

"Kate! We shouldn't go into people's houses uninvited!"

"No, something's wrong. No-one leaves their doors unlocked at night."

"Maybe he forgot…" Humphrey protested weakly, but it was too late. His girlfriend had already gone in.

Sighing, he followed her.

"Mr. Aarons!" he heard her exclaim from inside one of the rooms.

"Mr. Aarons, wake…Mr. Aarons?"

Humphrey entered the room to find her pressing her cheek against his mouth.

Then she stood up.

"Oh no."

And she began crying uncontrollably.

Humphrey stroked her back and let her rest her head on his shoulder, attempting to calm her down.

"Hush, Kate. Don't cry. He's with Leslie now. With the Lord."

Slowly, her tears began to subside.

"Let us pray," he said firmly.

Kate stopped crying. The two of them knelt down next to each other, and Humphrey began:

"Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord…"

* * *

Jesse Aarons felt himself moving through what seem to be a perpetual light, before realising that the golden-white illumination had a source.

Incidentally he felt himself to be a lot more limber, lightweight and small than normal.

At the centre of the omnipresent glow were two figures. But upon closer inspection, he came to realise that there was a third figure, moving about the legs of the shorter of the two.

And…_barking_?

"Prince…Prince Terrien?"

As he got closer he suddenly realised who the taller figure was.

"Je-Je-Jesus?"

The man smiled kindly.

"Yes, my son. Well done, good and faithful servant."

Which meant that the last figure was…

"LESLIE!" Jess practically screamed.

"JESS!" Leslie's voice came.

The two friends hugged each other tightly together.

They reluctantly separated after a long, long embrace.

Leslie smiled broadly. She was wearing the same dress she had worn to church that day. Funny, it was so long ago, but that memory was as fresh to Jess as his memory of meeting Kate and Humphrey. The dress was, however, embroidered with golden thread, and she wore a silver tiara.

"Welcome," she said, "to the Eternal Kingdom."

And so it was. Beyond them lay the landscape of Terabithia, except it was real, and infinitely more splendorous, majestic, glorious, beautiful and vast than it was even when May Belle had imagined it.

Jess turned to Jesus.

"But how…?"

Even though he had commended her soul to him, and chose to trust in him, whenever he prayed for her, he always harboured a small fear that the fact that she was not a Christian would condemn her. And so, after the tides of relief he felt upon realising she had been saved, came a growing curiosity.

Jesus smiled.

"I heard your prayers, Jesse."

"So did I," Leslie said gently.

"That was very sweet of you."

"She may not have been reborn by water and the Holy Spirit," Jesus said, "but she has seen beyond the mundane and into the eternal, the transcendent, the _infinite_. Grace may not have revealed to her the truth of my Passion, but it has revealed to her the beauty of it. In time, she would have come to see the fullness of Truth, Beauty and Goodness in the Gospel, and embraced it. Was it not her who taught you to have faith, and hope? To peer as she did into the eyes of the infinite? The _divine_? And was it not her that you loved with all your heart, and who loved you with all hers?"

"To love another person…is to see the face of God," Jesse said. "Les Miserables. Ms. Edmunds took us to see it once."

Our Lord smiled and nodded.

"As your father said, it is very clear that my father cannot send this little girl to Hell."

And with that, he faded away, leaving them to themselves.

"So, Jess," Leslie said, as she took his hand.

"Ready to be King again?" she produced a golden crown in her other hand.

"King, of your Eternal Kingdom?"

He smiled.

"Only if you're still going to be my Queen," he turned her around to face him, "of _our_ Eternal Kingdom."

She smiled. "I love you, Jess. And love is forever."

He leaned close to her.

"I've waited my whole life for you to tell me that," he whispered, "and it was worth it."

Both of their smiles widened.

"I love you, Leslie. Forever."

And they kissed, for the first time.

**A/N And of course the moment was ruined by Prince Terrien barking intrusively and excessively.**

** So, how was that? Drop me a review; it could really make my day!**

**EDIT: Thanks for the compliments, guys, but I'm pretty much done here. This is, more or less, all I have to say about Bridge to Terabithia; it is a sweet and fitting ending.**


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